Radio review

There are some interviewees that you just know are going to be a handful. Chaka Khan, on Woman's Hour (Radio 4) yesterday, is one of them, although she's a handful in a likably boisterous fashion. "I'm one of 25 to 50 women," she told Jane Garvey, explaining that she wakes each morning thinking to herself, "Who's here today?" Khan talks about herself in the third person quite a bit, and has an unusual turn of phrase. "I had to find my studio legs," she told Garvey, who replied with one of her fantastic, matter-of-fact questions: "What are your studio legs?"

What came across as brusqueness early on from Garvey in the Woman's Hour slot is now a welcome tendency to cut through twaddle. I loved her saying to Khan, "But you're really called Yvette, aren't you?", and also the bristling envy with which Garvey said "There's no justice, you look about 25!" as Khan discussed her years of drug abuse. There was also what sounded like an allusion to trying times for Garvey on the home front. She got the name of Khan's new album wrong. "Funk That," she said. "Funk This," Khan corrected. "It's been that sort of week," Garvey sighed.